We are living in the age of Queen Melon (née Calone) and King Violet Leaf; those two notes are dominating so many releases of the last year and a half that when I smell those notes in a fragrance I lose interest almost immediately. I don’t dislike melon and violet leaf, but smelling them in fragrance after fragrance over a long period of time has dulled their effect on me. So here comes Donna Karan’s DKNY Men (late to the violet leaf party) lagging behind other recent violet leaf-heavy scents such as Narciso Rodriguez For Him, Dsquared2 He Wood, Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme and Burberry The Beat For Men (to name just a few).
DKNY Men was created by perfumers Alberto Morillas and Harry Fremont and contains bergamot, mandarin, juniper, sage, white pepper, cardamom, lavender, violet leaf, jasmine, cedar, patchouli, orris and vetiver. DKNY Men opens with warm bergamot, violet leaf, and a touch of mandarin. The fragrance does not change much after the first few minutes on skin, and as the fragrance dries down, it resembles a slightly happier Burberry The Beat for Men…
